European history: medieval period, middle ages Books

Book SynopsisWinner of the Orwell Prize The second part of Peter Hennessy''s celebrated Post-War Trilogy, Having it So Good: Britain in the Fifties captures Britain in an extraordinary decade, emerging from the shadow of war into growing affluence.''If the Gods gossip, this is how it would sound'' Philip Ziegler, Spectator Books of the Year The 1950s was the decade in which Roger Bannister ran the four-minute mile, Bill Haley released ''Rock Around the Clock'', rationing ended and Britain embarked on the traumatic, disastrous Suez War. In this highly enjoyable, original book, Peter Hennessy takes his readers into front rooms, classrooms, cabinet rooms and the new high-street coffee bars of Britain to recapture, as no previous history has, the feel, the flavour and the politics of this extraordinary time of change. ''Utterly engaging ... a treat. It breathes exhilaration'' Libby Purves, The Times ''A particuTrade ReviewHennessy combines the balance and authority of a historian with the brilliantly selective eye of the investigative journalist ... if the Gods gossip this is how it would sound Books of the Year -- Philip Ziegler Spectator

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Book SynopsisHUGH THOMAS (Lord Thomas of Swynnerton) is the author of a number of highly successful histories, most famously CUBA, THE SLAVE TRADE and THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR.

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Book SynopsisThe greatness of Italy''s culture and way of life have had a powerful attraction for many generations of visitors. This has created an overwhelming sense that Italy is a fundamentally benign and easy going country. The Force of Destiny, Christopher Duggan''s immensely enjoyable new book, lays waste to this idea. While sharing everyone''s enthusiasm for Italy as a place, he strongly distinguishes this from its political role over the past two centuries, which has been both vicious and ruinous for Europe as a whole.

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Book Synopsis''An energetic, ambitious, provocative work by a young historian of notable gifts, which deserves a wide readership'' Max Hastings, The Sunday Times''Bold and breathtaking... I have never read a more daringly panoramic survey of the period'' Jonathan Wright, Herald ScotlandThe most terrible emergency in Britain''s history, the Second World War required an unprecedented national effort. An exhausted country had to fight an unexpectedly long war and found itself much diminished amongst the victors. Yet the outcome of the war was nonetheless a triumph, not least for a political system that proved well adapted to the demands of a total conflict and for a population who had to make many sacrifices but who were spared most of the horrors experienced in the rest of Europe.Britain''s War is a narrative of these epic events, an analysis of the myriad factors that shaped military success and failure, and an explanation of what Trade ReviewThis is an energetic, ambitious, provocative work by a young historian of notable gifts, which deserves a wide readership -- Max Hastings * The Sunday Times *A gifted historian...he tells the big story well but also illustrates his themes with many small stories and appealing anecdotes. -- Peter Clarke * Financial Times *Todman explores every aspect of the British experience of the war...rich in telling detail and reliant on the records kept by a host of ordinary Britons as they came to terms with the events going on around them...what ordinary people thought about the time they were living through provides a texture and depth that older wartime narratives have often lacked. -- Richard Overy * Literary Review *[Dan Todman] has succeeded in creating something that adds to our perception of what happened during this critical period...It is a compliment to Todman that time and again in reading his book I found myself thinking that I wanted to know more about this or that aspect. -- David Aaronovitch * The Times *The first volume of Dan Todman's new history of Britain and the Second World War is a tour de force. Taking the story up to the end of 1941, Todman provides us with a judicious guide to the road to war and its catastrophic first phase, offering in addition a shrewd portrait of Churchill which is worth the price of the book alone. Total history at its best. -- Jay Winter, Yale UniversityBold and breathtaking... I have never read a more daringly panoramic survey of the period...Todman has taken on a mammoth task but, at half-time, he shows every sign of completing it triumphantly. -- Jonathan Wright * Herald Scotland *

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Book SynopsisKeith Lowe''s Savage Continent is an awe-inspiring portrait of how Europe emerged from the ashes of WWII.The end of the Second World War saw a terrible explosion of violence across Europe. Prisoners murdered jailers. Soldiers visited atrocities on civilians. Resistance fighters killed and pilloried collaborators. Ethnic cleansing, civil war, rape and murder were rife in the days, months and years after hostilities ended. Exploring a Europe consumed by vengeance, Savage Continent is a shocking portrait of an until-now unacknowledged time of lawlessness and terror.Praise for Savage Continent:''Deeply harrowing, distinctly troubling. Moving, measured and provocative. A compelling and plausible picture of a continent physically and morally brutalized by slaughter'' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times''Excellent'', Independent ''Unbearable but essential. A serious account of things we never knew and our fathers would rather forget. Lowe''s transparent prose makes it difficult to look away from a whole catalogue of horrors...you won''t sleep afterwards. Such good history it keeps all the questions boiling in your mind'', ScotsmanKeith Lowe is widely recognized as an authority on the Second World War, and has often spoken on TV and radio, both in Britain and the United States. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Inferno: The Devastation of Hamburg, 1943 (Penguin). He lives in north London with his wife and two children.Trade ReviewGrimly absorbing, conveys the pity of war and its sorry aftermath with integrity and proper sympathy -- Ian Thomson * Sunday Telegraph *Moving, measured and provocative -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Times *Extraordinary...exceptional...reveals a continent where moral values were often missing and basically lawlessness prevailed for several years -- Trevor James * The Historian *Savage Continent is a powerful and disturbing book, painstakingly researched and written with both authority and an impressive historical sweep -- James HollandA major new historical talent has arrived... a brilliantly organised and scrupulously objective survey of a continent on the floor * BBC History Magazine *An excellent account...Lowe's vivid descriptions of Europeans scrambling for scraps of food, rampant theft and 'destruction of morals' are a timely reminder that a certain humility is in order when we look at less fortunate continents today. -- Brendan Simms * The Independent *Impressive and heart-rendering study...Lowe marshals all the elements of the story with cool even-handedness, especially where statistics are concerned, and explains how subsequent generations have manipulated the historical record to suit their own purposes, either to diminish their guilt or demonise others. -- Christopher Silvester * Daily Express *Extraordinary, disturbing and powerful ... it is to Lowe's great credit that he resists the temptation to sit in moral judgment ... it is time we acknowledged the hidden realities of perhaps the darkest chapter in all human history * Daily Mail *Graphic and chilling. This excellent book paints a little-known and frightening picture of a continent in the embrace of lawlessness and chaos -- Ian Kershaw

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Book SynopsisFrom our suburban streets which still trace the boundaries of long vanished farms to the Norfolk Broads, formed when medieval peat pits flooded - evidence of man''s effect on Britain is everywhere. Packed with over 250 maps and photographs, compellingly written and argued, this highly acclaimed book will permanently change the way you see your surroundings.Trade ReviewPryor is that rare combination of a first-rate working archaeologist and a good writer, with the priceless ability of being able to explain complex ideas clearly. This is popular archaeology at its best. * Times Higher Educational Supplement *Under his gaze, the land starts to fill with tribes and clans wandering this way and that, leaving traces that can still be seen today... Pryor feels the land rather than simply knowing it -- Kathryn Hughes * Guardian *I guarantee you'll enjoy it * British Archaeology *Compelling, deeply rewarding and hugely impressive ... pull on your boots and coat, go out into the open -- Philip Marsden * Sunday Times *A rollercoaster across a hundred centuries ... Pryor clearly loves this country in the marrow of his bones -- Adam Nicholson * Scotsman *

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Book Synopsis''Superb ... likely to become a classic'' ObserverIn the summer of 1914 most of Europe plunged into a war so catastrophic that it unhinged the continent''s politics and beliefs in a way that took generations to recover from. The disaster terrified its survivors, shocked that a civilization that had blandly assumed itself to be a model for the rest of the world had collapsed into a chaotic savagery beyond any comparison. In 1939 Europeans would initiate a second conflict that managed to be even worse - a war in which the killing of civilians was central and which culminated in the Holocaust.To Hell and Back tells this story with humanity, flair and originality. Kershaw gives a compelling narrative of events, but he also wrestles with the most difficult issues that the events raise - with what it meant for the Europeans who initiated and lived through such fearful times - and what this means for us.Trade ReviewA great achievement ... There could hardly be a more judicious guide to this bloody terrain ... a stark lesson in man's capacity for evil -- Dominic Sandbrook * The Sunday Times *A triumph ... one of a tiny handful of historians whose books will still be read in 100 years -- Laurence Rees * The Mail on Sunday *Chilling epic-size history ... should be required reading -- Harold Evans * The New York Times *The story of how the Old World plunged toward hell for 30 years ... There is no man better qualified than Kershaw to take us through the dark valleys of the world wars and the two sombre intervening decades ... fair-minded, deeply researched and highly readable -- Brendan Simms * Wall Street Journal *We are in the hands of a master historian -- Nigel Jones * Spectator *Few authors would have the ability, and perhaps the determination, to take on the history of both world wars and the connecting decades at this level of sophistication, depth and breadth -- Robert Tombs * The Times *Authoritative -- Nicholas Shakespeare * Telegraph *Kershaw leads his readers through this complex history in a clear and compelling manner -- Joanna Bourke * Prospect *

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Book SynopsisA SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERSHORTLISTED FOR THE LIONEL GELBER PRIZE 2020''Brilliant ... a historical masterpiece'' The Times Literary SupplementFrom one of Britain''s most distinguished historians and the bestselling author of Hitler, this is the definitive history of a divided Europe, from the aftermath of the Second World War to the present.After the overwhelming horrors of the first half of the 20th century, described by Ian Kershaw in his previous book as having gone ''to Hell and back'', the years from 1950 to 2017 brought peace and relative prosperity to most of Europe. Enormous economic improvements transformed the continent. The catastrophic era of the world wars receded into an ever more distant past, though its long shadow continued to shape mentalities. Europe was now a divided continent, living under the nuclear threat in a period intermittently fraught with anxiety. Europeans experienced a ''roller-coaster ride'', both in the sense that they were flung through a series of events which threatened disaster, but also in that they were no longer in charge of their own destinies: for much of the period the USA and USSR effectively reduced Europeans to helpless figures whose fates were dictated to them by the Cold War. There were striking successes - the Soviet bloc melted away, dictatorships vanished and Germany was successfully reunited. But accelerating globalization brought new fragilities. The impact of interlocking crises after 2008 was the clearest warning to Europeans that there was no guarantee of peace and stability.In this remarkable book, Ian Kershaw has created a grand panorama of the world we live in and where it came from. Drawing on examples from all across the continent, Roller-Coaster will make us all rethink Europe and what it means to be European.Trade ReviewAn expert and meticulous look at the events that shaped the continent... it should have a prominent place on the shelf of anybody, professional or layperson, who wants to make sense of present-day Europe -- Josef Joffe * Financial Times *This is a remarkable pan-European survey, and one can only admire the vast range of scholarship lightly worn -- Robert Tombs * The Times *A supreme achievement, wearing its immense learning lightly and written with page-turning energy * Literary Review *In synthesizing and evaluating an enormous body of scholarship, not only on Europe, East and West, but also on the wider world and the globalisation processes that have so deeply affected European history, Ian Kershaw has produced a historical masterpiece. * Times Literary Supplement *A formidable historian of detail * Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisBefore Easter 1916 Dublin had been a city much like any other British city, comparable to Bristol or Liverpool and part of a complex, deep-rooted British world. The devastating events of that Easter changed everything. This book focuses on these events.

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Book SynopsisEdward VI died a teenager in 1553, yet his brief reign would shape the future of the nation, unleashing a Protestant revolution that propelled England into the heart of the Reformation. This dramatic account takes a fresh look at one of the most significant and turbulent periods in English history. ''A challenging, elegant and persuasive biography of an unjustly neglected king'' Jerry Brotton, author of This Orient Isle''MacCulloch puts the young Edward at the centre of the action ... as this excellent and lively study shows, his ghost continues to haunt the history of Anglicanism'' Sunday Times ''This is Reformation history as it should be written, not least because it resembles its subject matter: learned, argumentative, and, even when mistaken, never dull'' Eamon Duffy, author of The Stripping of the Altars''One of the best historians writing in English today'' Sunday Telegraph

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Book SynopsisAt the terrible heart of the modern age lies Auschwitz. In a total inversion of earlier hopes about the use of science and technology to improve, extend and protect human life, Auschwitz manipulated the same systems to quite different ends. In Sybille Steinbacher''s terse, powerful new book, the reader is led through the process by which something unthinkable to any European in the 1930s had become a sprawling, industrial reality during the course of the world war. How Auschwitz grew and mutated into an entire dreadful city, how both those who managed it and those who were killed by it came to be in Poland in the 1940s, and how it was allowed to happen, is something everyone needs to understand.

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Book Synopsis''He had brought nothing but trouble to the navy: how would he fare as King?''Known as the ''Sailor King'', William IV was sent to join the navy by his father to discipline him, but instead became notorious for his calamitous years of service, his debts and his relationship with the actress Mrs Jordan. Yet, as Roger Knight''s biography shows, William also helped see the country through the great constitutional crisis of its age, enabling the smooth succession of his niece Victoria.

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Book SynopsisIn April 1917, Lenin arrived at Petrograd''s Finland Station and set foot on Russian soil for the first time in over a decade. For most of the past seventeen years, the Bolshevik leader had lived in exile, moving between Europe''s many Russian colonies--large and politically active communities of émigrés in London, Paris, and Geneva, among other cities. Thousands of fellow exiles who followed Lenin on his eastward trek in 1917 were in a similar predicament. The returnees plunged themselves into politics, competing to shape the future of a vast country recently liberated from tsarist rule. Yet these activists had been absent from their homeland for so long that their ideas reflected the Russia imagined by residents of the faraway colonies as much as they did events on the ground. The 1917 revolution marked the dawn of a new day in Russian politics, but it also represented the continuation of decades-long conversations that had begun in emigration and were exported back to Russia. Faith Trade ReviewWhen discussing the effects of the Russian Revolution, much scholarly energy has been expended on whether ideology or the experience of taking power was responsible for Bolshevik policy. In this meticulously documented account Faith Hillis adds another dimension to this debate as she argues that, although absorbed by radical ideology, the life experienced in Russian colonies abroad affected the way in which Russian radicals and revolutionaries understood these ideas and thus how they behaved when in power....Hillis's book...emphasizes once again the primacy of ideas for the Russian radicals and recreates the neighborhoods and complex interactions that gave currency to these ideas both in Russia and beyond. * Catherine Andreyev, Journal of Modern History *This is a compelling and rich study that has many interesting sides and uses for the historian. Perhaps its greatest strength is in how it reconstructs the experience of being revolutionary in Europe, and the influence of utopians on pivotal moments in European and Russian history. * George Gilbert, University of Southampton, UK, European History Quarterly *Impressive in its scope, Utopia's Discontents provides a reinterpretation of the political genealogies of the Russian Revolution through a study of its rich and contentious émigré history....This book offers not only a richly detailed analysis of émigrés' efforts to reinvent society but also an interpretation of Russian radical thought as rooted in transnational spaces.... Hillis not only weaves the life stories of the Russian Revolution's celebrities into a dense web of encounters and exchanges but illuminates the groups often marginalized from these big histories. The narrative steps deftly from Poles and Ukrainians, to women, and to Jews, the focus on the latter group offering particularly exciting new perspectives on the revolutionary emigration....The website companion to the book... is an invaluable resource for historians in the field working with rare books and periodicals and a generous contribution to scholarship. * Lara Green, Revolutionary Russia *Engrossing.... Hillis's flair for narrative, small and large, gives Utopia's Discontents its depth and breadth. We learn about Russian women students who wore large glasses and short haircuts to signify their break with traditional gender norms, about Mensheviks and Bolsheviks brawling in Genevan bars, and about one émigré Populist leader's successful career as an artisanal kefir maker. Behind the dozens of characters that we meet is an enormous number of archival documents and a conviction that the milieu is the true protagonist of history. * Ania Aizman, Los Angeles Review of Books *Marvelous....the first major treatment of the émigré circles that dotted central and western Europe through the nineteenth century and into the twentieth.... Hillis offers a convincing portrait of these colonies functioning as...loci of intense engagement where groups of Russian emigres...rubbed shoulders, shouted at one another, and exchanged ideas with one another to produce new forms of said politics with drastic importance for world history.... It is clearly and elegantly written and shows a masterful command of the source material. It shines light on as a creative space capable of generating vast ideas....Hillis offers a new form of spatial history, a republic of cafes, street corners, bedrooms, and railroad cars where Russia was reimagined and the world transformed. Utopia's Discontents belongs on every bookshelf, and Hillis deserves every praise for writing it. * Joshua Meyers, In Geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies *The waves of Russian political, literary, and artistic émigrés who relocated to Europe have fascinated Western historians....Faith Hillis has her own unique perspective on post-Napoleonic Europe's Russian colonies....Her novel angle attempts to illustrate how the exiles living in poor, crowded conditions contributed to the particularities of Bolshevik politics and party culture....Hillis...is fair minded and balanced, cautious and moderate in her judgments, and she tells her story with detail and fluency. * Ronald Grigor Suny, American Historical Review *Hillis has written a ground-breaking study of Russian history from the perspective of émigrés and their movements against both czarist rule and, after the 1917 Revolution, the Bolsheviks themselves. Hillis notes anti-czarist movements began well before the revolutions of 1848 and reconstituted themselves after the failed Paris Commune of 1871....Hillis is to be applauded for the very successful application of her unique approach to considering Russian history. * Choice *When we describe the October Revolution as a 'world-historical event', this is usually understood to refer to the global consequences of the rise of the first Marxist state. Faith Hillis, in a brilliant move, has turned this sequence of events on its head. Utopia's Discontents shows how people, places and events situated far beyond the borders of Russia shaped the Revolution. The October Revolution, she shows, was world-historical at its root....Utopia's Discontents narrates the history of these utopian communities in fascinating, intimate detail....An excellent example of history that steps beyond disciplinary divisions and national boundaries. * Kevin M.F. Platt, Times Literary Supplement *Utopia's Discontents literally puts the history of the Russian Revolution—and all that came with it—on the map. By moving our point of reference to the émigré and exile peripheries at the core of twentieth-century history, this fascinating study of the 'Russian colonies' in Europe offers an inspiringly original take on the history of 'post-colonialism.' With uncommon narrative ease and rigorous attention to detail, Hillis does to the reigning historiography of the revolutionary movements what her protagonists did to the liberal order of the late nineteenth century. The history of ideas just got a good deal richer. * Holly Case, author of Age of Questions *Vividly narrated and brimming with insight, Utopia's Discontents brings to life the storied 'Russian colonies' of western Europe's major cities, where revolutions were plotted and new countries imagined. Faith Hillis brilliantly recreates the dense neighborhoods, intimate, often fraught social relationships, and high-pitched theoretical arguments that characterized life in the Russian colonies. Utopia's Discontents is a multi-layered study, at once richly local in focus and broad in scope. It is a truly exciting book. * Tony Michels, author of A Fire in Their Hearts: Yiddish Socialists in New York *This ground-breaking book rethinks the history of Russia's revolutionaries through their lives in exile communities. Place mattered in their story: for inspiration, for encounters, for everyday radical practices. The book is a rich history of ideas—freedom, equality, community, and justice, and socialism—but as everyday practices rather than dreamy abstractions. Not least, this is magisterial research, written in an accessible and compelling manner. * Mark Steinberg, author of The Russian Revolution, 1905-21 *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Abbreviations Explanatory Note Introduction: From the Café Landolt Part I: Making Utopia Concrete Chapter 1: The Other Communards Chapter 2: Living the Revolution Chapter 3: Jewish Workers Meet the Russian Revolution Part II: Europe's Russian Moment Chapter 4: Entangled Emancipations Chapter 5: Émigré Dystopias Part III: Revolutionary Repercussions Chapter 6: "The Party of Extreme Opposition" Chapter 7: Ou-topos? Chapter 8: Revolution from Abroad Epilogue: Émigré Clans Notes Select Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisRevised and updated throughout, the fourth edition of A Brief History of Ancient Greece presents the political, social, cultural, and economic history and civilization of ancient Greece in all its complexity and variety. Written by six leading ancient Greek historians, this captivating study covers Greek history from the Bronze Age into the Roman period.Trade ReviewPomeroy's A Brief History of Ancient Greece continues to be the best and most comprehensive textbook for those interested in ancient Greek history and culture. The new edition stretches from the Bronze Age down through Roman Greece, and makes an effort to include many primary source documents and new archaeological finds. This text is an ideal choice for students and enthusiasts of Greek history (political, social, military, and cultural) and civilization. * Jessica Lamont, Yale University *A Brief History of Ancient Greece is the standard text that I have relied on since I was an undergraduate, providing the best combination of content coverage, lucid explanation, supplemental materials (including pictures), and price. * Joshua Nuddell, University of Missouri *This is the best text on the market at acknowledging recent scholarly trends without cutting out the traditional material. The writing is clear and accessible. The maps and color illustrations add a lot of verve. * Andrew Alwine, College of Charleston *A Brief History of Ancient Greece covers all the major topics in Ancient Greek history via a page-turning chronological narrative. Essentially, this is a finely balanced text, avoiding belabouring topics as well as giving coverage to all the major themes. Its major strengths are its readability, formatting (which fits my course's time frame), cost, and currency. * Montgomery Walker, Yakima Valley College *

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Book SynopsisThe image of Poland has once again been impressed on European consciousness. Norman Davies provides a key to understanding the modern Polish crisis in this lucid and authoritative description of the nation''s history. Beginning with the period since 1945, he travels back in time to highlight the long-term themes and traditions which have influenced present attitudes.His evocative account reveals Poland as the heart of Europe in more than the geographical sense. It is a country where Europe''s ideological conflicts are played out in their most acute form: as recent events have emphasized, Poland''s fate is of vital concern to European civilization as a whole.This revised and updated edition tackles and analyses the issues arising from the fall of the Eastern Block, and looks at Poland''s future within a political climate of democracy and free market.Trade Reviewanother masterpiece. Heart of Europe has sweep, a rare analytical depth and a courageous display of the author's personal convictions. The book begins and ends with Solidarity; the unique labour movement thus serves as a frame for the nation's history. * New York Times Book Review *Table of Contents(TO BE CONFIRMED)

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Book SynopsisThe history of fair play in Britain from earliest times to the present, asking whether it is in fact a British, or alternatively an English, characteristic at all - and if so, whether fair play still matters today?Trade Reviewwhat Duke-Evans shows with an impressive mass of evidence is that ... 'fair play' really has had a unique influence on how Britons think of themselves * Sam Leith, Sunday Times *a pleasant surprise ... ambitious and wide-ranging * Robert Tombs, The Daily Telegraph *Rigorous and personable, fluently navigating potentially dry or finicky subject matter * Henry Hitchings, The Times *An original, scholarly and extremely readable history of what is often regarded, by the English anyway, as an essential attribute of their national character * Sir Keith Thomas, author ofReligion and the Decline of Magic *The book is leavened throughout with the lightness of touch and wry humour of an escaped academic and career civil servant; it succeeds in every respect. * Patrick Nash, Catholic Herald *Table of ContentsPreface 1: Introduction: The Problem of Fair Play 2: What Do We Mean When We Talk About Fair Play? 3: Fair Play: The History of a Phrase 4: Classical Perspectives 5: Christianity and Chivalry 6: Fair Play in Pre-industrial Britain: Law, Politics, Religion and Class 7: Fair Play - The Popular Strand 8: The Rise of the Gentleman 9: The Realm Beyond England 10: The Great Appropriation 11: The Expanding Circle 12: The Wider World 13: Fair Play in the 20th Century and Beyond 14: Conclusion: Fair Play and the British Appendix 1: Quantifying the Use of 'Fair Play' Appendix 2: Fair Play Quotients for Teams playing 15 or more Matches at World Cup Finals, 1930 to date

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Book SynopsisFilled with discoveries, this is the dramatic story of Pope Pius XII''s struggle to respond to the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Nazi domination of Europe.The Pope at War is the third in a trilogy of books about the papacy''s response to the rise of Fascism and Nazism. It tells the dramatic story of Pope Pius XII''s struggle to respond to the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the ongoing Nazi attempts to exterminate the Jews of Europe. It is the first book dealing with the war to make extensive use of the newly opened Vatican archives for the war years. It is based, as well, on thousands of documents from the Italian, German, French, British, and American archives. Among the many new discoveries brought to light is the discovery that within weeks of becoming pope in 1939, Pius XII entered into secret negotiations with Hitler through Hitler''s emissary, a Nazi Prince who was married to the daughter of the King of Italy and who was very close to Hitler. The negotiations werTrade ReviewMagnificent... Kertzer is a gifted writer ... He is also to be congratulated on avoiding polemic. It would have been easy, given the evidence, to have suffused the pages with moral outrage. But because he lays the facts bare and presents all sides of the argument, he lets readers come to their own conclusion. And that conclusion ought to be a devastating one ... What a tragedy, the reader might think after finishing this groundbreaking book, that the Pope did not "love" the Jews as much as he "loved" Germany. * Laurence Rees, Daily Telegraph *The Pope at War is the idea that it does not matter whether we are popes, prime ministers, or chancellors. Rather, our failings and shortcomings as individuals (of any station) can result in crimes whose magnitude boggles the mind; thus, even as we castigate the pontiff, we look inwards in ways at once discomfiting and necessary. * Giuliana Chamedes, Times Literary Supplement *An engrossing, often exciting and sometimes moving book. * Richard J. Evans, London Review of Books *The Pope at War shares with its two predecessors a dramatic sense of history. * Hilmar M. Pabel, The Tablet *Compelling * Elisabeth Braw, Engelsberg Ideas *...One of the best accounts of [Pius, the] wartime pontificate. Kertzer had already acquired a reputation as an elegant stylist with a commanding gift for explanation. That reputation will be further burnished by this tome. * Miles Pattenden, Australian Book Review *A book, which, to all intents and unequivocal purposes, is even more rightly pugilist in its undertaking, than those for whom power and the ducking and diving of the truth has become an elongated second nature of distorted discourse. * David Marx, David Marx Book Reviews *A thorough exploration of the Vatican archives for the pontificate of Pope Pius XII has long been awaited. David I. Kertzer's splendid book now provides it, presenting a plethora of highly unflattering evidence of the pope's role during the Second World War and his silence regarding the Holocaust. The book ends much of the debate about the pope and surely makes any lingering apologia for his stance implausible. * Ian Kershaw, author of Hitler: A Biography *A magisterial new study of how the Vatican navigated World War II and why Pope Pius XII stayed silent in the face of the mass murder of Jews. * Ruth Ben-Ghirt, Professor of History and Italian Studies, New York University *Disputes over the role of Pope Pius XII in World War II have been hopelessly mired either in sanctimony or hostility because of gaps in the historical record. David Kertzer's supremely well-informed analysis of the newly opened Vatican archives now establishes once and for all the massive scale of the pope's moral failure in the face of Europe's conflagration and Hitler's murder of six million Jews. If the faint-hearted pope was no war criminal, he was surely no saint. With Kertzer's magnum opus, the book on Pius XII is written, the dispute resolved, case closed. * James Carroll, author of Constantine's Sword *Not many expected the memory of Pope Pius XII's dealing with Jews during World War II to be sweetened by the recent opening of Vatican archives from that period. But who could have guessed how sordid the revelations would be? David I. Kertzer has the learning and courage to read the new documents and show what deep slime the Vatican was wading in during Pius XII's papacy. Brace yourself for a story full of horrors. * Garry Willis, author of Why I Am a Catholic *David I. Kertzer has outdone himself and crowned his extraordinary career with this volume on Pope Pius XII. He writes a simply riveting account with a worldwide cast of characters that includes Mussolini, Hitler, FDR, Churchill, and Eisenhower. This remarkably researched book is replete with revelations that deserve the adjective 'explosive' and with so much more. The book is a masterpiece. * Kevin Madigan, Winn Professor of Ecclesiastical History, Harvard University *Kertzerâ restricts himself for the most part to a sober, factual narrative, avoiding facile expressions of moral outrage. * Richard J. Evans, London Review of Books *Table of ContentsPrologue: The Twisted Cross PART ONE: WAR CLOUDS 1: Death of a Pope 2: The Conclave 3: Appealing to the Führer 4: The Peacemaker 5: 'Please do not talk to me about Jews' 6: The Nazi Prince 7: Saving Face 8: War Begins 9: The Prince Returns 10: A Papal Curse 11: Man of Steel 12: A Problematic Visitor PART TWO: ON THE PATH TO AXIS VICTORY 13: An Inopportune Time 14: An Honorable Death 15: A Short War 16: Surveillance 17: The Feckless Ally 18: The Greek Fiasco 19: A New World Order 20: Hitler to the Rescue 21: The Crusade 22: A New Prince 23: Best to Say Nothing PART THREE: CHANGING FORTUNES 24: Escaping Blame 25: Papal Premiere 26: Disaster Foretold 27: A Thorny Problem 28: An Awkward Request 29: The Good Nazi 30: Deposing the Duce 31: Musical Chairs 32: Betrayal PART FOUR: THE SKY TURNED BLACK 33: Fake News 34: The Pope's Jews 35: Baseless Rumours 36: Treason 37: A Gratifying Sight 38: Malevolent Reports 39: A Gruesome End Epilogue Final Thoughts: The Silence of the Pope

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Book SynopsisVery Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring The British constitution is regarded as unique among the constitutions of the world. What are the main characteristics of Britain''s peculiar constitutional arrangements? How has the British constitution altered in response to the changing nature of its state - from England, to Britain, to the United Kingdom? What impact has the UK''s developing relations with the European Union caused?These are some of the questions that Martin Loughlin addresses in this Very Short Introduction. As a constitution, it is one that has grown organically in response to changes in the economic, political, and social environment, and which is not contained in a single authoritative text.By considering the nature and authority of the current British constitution, and placing it in the context of others, Loughlin considers how the traditional idea of a constitution came to be retained, what problems have been generated as a result of adapting a tTable of Contents1: The existential question 2: What constitution? 3: Writing the constitution 4: Parliamentary government 5: Reconfiguring the State 6: Civil liberty 7: Whither the constitution?

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Book SynopsisPaths out of the Apocalypse fundamentally rethinks some key debates in the scholarship on early 20th-century Central Europe, the First World War, violence, nationalism and modern European comparative social and cultural history, considering the population of the hinterland as an active subject that decisively shaped the outcomes of the war.Trade ReviewMethodically, the book stands out as an ambitious interlacing of perspectives...consult this volume as a material-rich and stimulating special research on the history of violence in three historical areas of the dual monarchy. * Markus Pöhlmann, Journal of History *Table of ContentsIntroduction Part I 1: Uncle Rudolf 2: Degenerates 3: Seeking the truth 4: Mental illness in court 5: Poverty in court 6: Improvising in court 7: Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes 8: Cannibals, poachers, and deserters 9: Crime or politics 10: That the president may long govern 11: Ominous eagles PART II 12: Youths outside the house 13: Prostitutes and workers 14: Appeasement in the public square 15: Fat ones, rich ones, Jews, and gendarmes 16: The Russian hunter 17: Disintegrating societies 18: The wild west or a new republic? 19: The victors and the vanquished 20: A slapped factory owner 21: Gallows and committess 22: The wild east 23: Blackshirts Conclusion

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Book SynopsisDrawing upon Muslim Europe's own voices, institutions, and experiences, this compelling work reframes the debates on European secularism, the historic role of Shari'a law in diverse European states, Muslims and Nazis, Muslims and Communists, and the contributions of Muslims to Europe today.Trade ReviewSouth-eastern Europe...played host to long-simmering tensions of state-making, community-building and religious resistance amid the ruins of empire. Emily Greble's important new book analyses many of these themes, using the history of Muslims in south-eastern Europe—and later Yugoslavia—from the 'long post-Ottoman transition' through the Second World War as her case study....Greble's book should spur Europeanists to pay much more attention to this regional history, which has had a large impact on the history of the continent in various ways.... Greble has certainly succeeded in her wider effort to reveal how Europe's Muslim communities helped define a 'modern political order' that existed 'within European history, not alongside, outside or on the peripheries of it', and which European historians specializing in other regions—including the readers of this journal—would do well to keep more firmly in view. * Paul Betts, German History *Books of the Year 2022 * Tony Barber, Financial Times *Despite having a significant presence in Europe since the eighth century CE, Muslims continue to be seen above all else as Muslims rather than citizens of the nation-state they inhabit. Greble addresses how Muslims in the Balkans, specifically former Yugoslavia, were viewed by the state and how they interacted with it. Beginning in 1878, the author examines how Muslims, rather than being brought into Serbia's secular society, were tied more closely to religion through the state's maintenance of Islamic socioreligious law. The Muslim community's distinct legal structure left it struggling to negotiate its political belonging until the post-WW II period....Ultimately, under Tito, the Shariʽa legal order was eliminated, transforming Islam from a legal issue into a cultural idea. This work's great strength is Greble's approach to the topic from a Muslim perspective, instead of viewing Muslims as Europe's Other, which is, unfortunately, the norm. * Choice *Greble makes adroit use of rich material drawn from numerous archives in Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Croatia and Serbia, and supplements this with wide reading. * Mark Mazower, Times Literary Supplement *Greble's important book casts modern Europe's history in a fresh perspective by concentrating on the continent's indigenous Muslims. * Tony Barber, Financial Times Best summer books of 2022: History *[A] fascinating new book... By reorienting our perspective, Greble reveals how vital it is to see Muslims as part of modern European history rather than outside it, how they were never "relics of a non-European past" but instead vital actors in Europe's tortured modernisation. She also raises important questions about the continued unwillingness of states across the globe to "accept the existence and possibility of Muslim citizens", from toxic political discourse in Europe and America to brutal persecution in India, China, and Myanmar. This important book asks difficult questions about both past and present. * Christopher Kissane, Irish Times *The salient strength of this book is Greble's foregrounding of Muslim voices and insistence on defining them as European... Readers should relish her triumphant restoration of Muslim agency...In the end, we discover a European history that includes Islam and, in the process, might need to rethink what exactly 'Europe' is. * Theodora Dragostinova, History Today *Greble's nuanced retelling of the region's social and political landscape has renewed urgency. Her work serves as a refreshing intervention to the literature on various fronts. It subverts stereotypical assumptions promulgated by the 'Eastern Question', whereby Muslims are portrayed as a simple ethnic minority living under colonial rule. Instead, Greble shows how they are a marginalized indigenous group that is by no means a monolithic, homogeneous entity... Greble's neatly crafted thesis serves as a counterpunch to a decades-long clash-of-civilizations discourse, which pits Muslims of the region as Ottoman outsiders to be scapegoated as and when deemed necessary... Ultimately, the author offers a complex perspective not only of Balkan Muslims and their lived experiences, but also, the implications of this upon wider society and the states themselves. * Maryyum Mehmood, The World Today *It takes a bold book to ask 'Who is a European?', a question that nonetheless dominates European politics today, both domestically and in the corridors of power in the European Union. This scholarly and meticulously researched history of the Muslim populations of Europe between the late 19th and mid-20th centuries pays special attention to the Balkans.... Emily Greble's book demonstrates that Muslims are by no means a recent addition to Europe's states and societies, but have been part of them for much longer than contemporary headlines about immigrants, foreign workers and refugees.... In other words, the author turns the perspective that the state is the one that assigns a place to Muslims, since she emphasizes that they themselves are the ones who have the purpose of defining themselves and positioning themselves as citizens within a European framework. * Francis Ghilès, Esglobal *Bringing together European and Shari'a law, cultural, social and political history, this striking account spans seven decades as it treats Islam as indigenous to Europe, and shows that Muslims have long been part of European history, politics and society. Greble...challenges our notion of what it is to be a citizen of Europe. * The Bookseller (Editor's Choice) *In a well-documented account, laced with personal stories, Greble outlines how more than a million Ottoman Muslims became citizens of the new European states from 1878 until after the Second World War It is a story of citizenship, exclusion and the changing meaning of minority rights and religious freedom. How Muslims have not only experienced Europe's turbulent history, but have also played a crucial role in the development of social norms and political, ethical and legal structures on our continent... Greble's appeal is therefore 'to reintegrate Muslims into the story of European history and end their recurring exclusion'. Because if Muslims and the Making of Modern Europe makes one thing clear: Muslims are not guests here or engaged in a 'great replacement' of the white population. Muslims have always been part of Europe, which they then and still regard as their home. * Inaki Onorbe Genovesi, de Volkskrant *Focusing on the historic place of Muslims in southeastern Europe, and on the contradictory ways states have attempted to categorize and manage them, this brilliant study confronts readers with the pressing question of who exactly constitute 'the Europeans.' * Pieter M. Judson, author of The Habsburg Empire: A New History *Greble shows that far from being a recent addition to European societies, Muslim populations have been integral to European states and societies for much longer than contemporary headlines on immigrants, guest workers, and refugees would suggest. In this important study Greble reveals the ways in which Muslims have been at the heart of the making of law, politics, and society in modern Europe. * Mustafa Aksakal, Georgetown University *In this bold study, Emily Greble addresses the question 'Who is European?' by showing the organic place and active participation of Muslims throughout modern European history. Using the example of the former Yugoslav space until the 1940s, her thorough research deftly overturns the usual perspective of the state assigning a place for Muslims. Instead, she emphasizes the agency of Muslims seeking to define and place themselves as citizens within a European framework. * Maria Todorova, author of Imagining the Balkans *Emily Greble's Muslims and the Making of Modern Europe is an erudite and meticulously researched history of Europe's Muslim populations in the twentieth century. Greble teaches us that we will not be able to understand the genealogies of secularism, nationalism, liberalism, citizenship, and human rights without the crucial significance of Muslims in the making of modern Europe. This will prove an indispensable scholarly intervention to shatter the extremist ideologies that rely on the narratives of the clash of civilizations. * Cemil Aydin, author of The Idea of the Muslim World: A Global Intellectual History *Muslims and the Making of Modern Europe is an engaging story with significant archival, geographic, and chronological breadth. Greble offers new comparative insights into how religious "minority" communities navigated Europe's turbulent interwar years, while opening up paths for further research. Above all, her book is a reminder of how important it is for scholars to think beyond entrenched geographical boundaries and to center overlooked voices in scholarship. * Joshua Donovan, Reading Religion *This study offers some new food for thought for the study of Islamic institutions under non-Muslim state rule by showing the different interpretations and implementations of European minority rights for Muslims in Southeastern Europe. * Translated from H-Soz-Kult *This is a book about the lives of Muslims in what used to be Yugoslavia-in particular, what is today Serbia, Kosovo, Montenegro, and North Macedonia...This is a book rich in information. * Maurits Berger, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Glossary of Islamic Terms List of Foreign Place Names Introduction Part I: The Long Post-Ottoman Transition, 1878-1921 Chapter 1: Muslim Rights and Political Belonging after the Congress of Berlin Chapter 2: Confessional Sovereignty and the Formation of a Muslim Legal Other Chapter 3: Survival and Autonomy: Lessons of the Balkan Wars and the First World War Chapter 4: Second or Third Class Citizens: Becoming Minorities after World War I Part II: Yugoslav Experiments in Nation-Building, 1918-1941 Chapter 5: The Shari'a Mandate and Yugoslav Nation-Building Chapter 6: "The Bonfire of Muslim Unity": Misfortunes of Yugoslav Democracy and Authoritarianism Chapter 7: Islamic Legal Revivalism and the Crisis of Europe Part III: War and Political Reordering, 1941-1949 Chapter 8: "Back to Islam!": The Promise and Possibility of Hitler's Europe Chapter 9: The Eradication of the Shari'a Legal Order in Tito's Yugoslavia Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe dramatic story of a mutiny aboard an eighteenth-century British ship and how its owners effectively rallied the power of the British Crown to protect their investment and expand their wealth and political power across multiple generations.In 1768, the British slave ship Black Prince, departed the port of Bristol, bound for West Africa. It never arrived. Before reaching Old Calabar, the crew mutinied, murdering the captain and his officers. The mutineers renamed the ship Liberty, elected new officers, and set out for Brazil. By the time the ship arrived there, the crew had disintegrated into a violent mob and fired into the port city. After the Black Prince wrecked off the coast of Hispaniola, the rebels fled to outposts around the Atlantic world. An eight-year manhunt ensued.This book follows the crew''s turn to piracy and the merchant-owners'' response to the uprising. At the very moment that the American Revolution unfolded in North America, the Black Prince''s owners conducted a shadow revolution, mobilizing the power of the British Crown to seek justice and restitution on their behalf. These private merchants used state surveillance, policing, extradition, capital punishment, international diplomacy, and even warfare in order to protect their wealth. During an era of professed liberty and freedom, the privatization of state power was already emerging, replacing monarchies with corporate oligarchies, presaging a new kind of political power in the Atlantic world. The eighteenth-century Bristol slave merchants and subsequent generations of their families accrued great fortunes from the trade and invested it in early British banks, railroads, insurance companies, industrial manufacturing, and even the Anglican Church.Mutiny on the Black Prince narrates the dramatic story of the events onboard and the merchant owners'' efforts to capture the rebels from around the Atlantic world, as well as the way that British slavery shaped the industrializing Atlantic economy and the evolution of the modern corporate state.

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Book SynopsisPlease note this title is suitable for any student studying:Exam Board: AQALevel/Subject: AS and A Level HistoryFirst teaching: September 2015First exams: June 2017Retaining well-loved features from the previous editions, Religious Conflict and the Church in England has been approved by AQA and matched to the 2015 specifications. This textbook covers AS and A Level content together and explores in depth a period of major change in the English Church and government, and the issues which led England to break with Rome. It focuses on key concepts such as humanism, Protestantism and the relationship between Church and state, and covers events and developments with precision.Students can further develop vital skills such as historical interpretations and source analyses via specially selected sources and extracts. Practice questions and study tips provide additional support to help familiarize students with the new exam style questions, and help them achieve their best in the exam.

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Book SynopsisPlease note this title is suitable for any student studying:Exam Board: AQALevel/Subject: AS and A Level HistoryFirst teaching: 2015First exams: June 2017Retaining well-loved features from the previous editions, France in Revolution 1774-1815 has been approved by AQA and matched to the new 2015 specification.This textbook explores in depth a key period of history which was to change the relationship between the ruler and the governed, not only in France but throughout Europe and, in time, the wider world. It focuses on key ideas such as absolutism, enlightenment, republic and dictatorship, and covers events and developments with precision. Students can further develop vital skills such as historical interpretations and source analyses via specially selected sources and extracts. Practice questions and study tips provide additional support to help familiarize students with the new exam style questions, and help them achieve their best in the exam.

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Book SynopsisThe European Union (EU) stands out as a fascinatingly unique political organisation. On the one hand, it has shown the potential for developing deep and wide-ranging cooperation between member states, going far beyond that found anywhere else in the world. On the other, it is currently in the throes of a phase of profound uncertainty about its viability and future.Showing how and why the EU has developed from 1950 to the present day, this Very Short Introduction covers a range of topics, including the Union''s early history, the workings of its institutions and what they do, the interplay between ''eurosceptics'' and federalists, and the role of the Union beyond Europe in international affairs and as a peace-keeper. In this fully updated fourth edition, Pinder and Usherwood cover the migrant crisis and the UK''s decision to leave the Union, set in the context of a body that is now involved in most areas of public policy. Discussing how the EU continues to draw in new members, they conclude by considering the future of the Union and the choices and challenges that may lie ahead. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade ReviewThis slim little volume is quite simply the best place to start for anyone who aspires to understand the European Union. * Professor Anand Menon, Kings College and Director, UK in a Changing Europe *Table of ContentsREFERENCES; FURTHER READING; GLOSSARY; INDEX

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Book SynopsisIn the third century BCE, Macedon dominated mainland Greece, but was rapidly descending into chaos. One of the consequences was a massive invasion of Celts, who ravaged and plundered Macedon and northern Greece for several years. Antigonus Gonatas, son of one of Alexander the Great''s Successors, finally defeated the Celts and laid the foundations for a long but troubled reign (276-239 BCE). In order to achieve stability, he adopted repressive measures towards many of the Greek cities. The Making of a King is the first book in more than a century to tell the gripping story of Antigonus'' rule: how he gained the throne, how he held it, the nature of his court, the measures he took towards the Greeks, and their responses. While Antigonus was confirming his rule in Macedon by introducing constitutional changes there, the Greeks were making their own changes. Their only hope for independence lay in greater unity. Two great confederacies of Greek cities emerged: the Aetolians in central GreTrade ReviewThe book is well written, with the prose being pleasing and enjoyable to read. Both general and scholarly audiences can gain substantial insights into a broad range of subjects from W.'s efforts, which have done justice to the fascinating epoch that was the early Hellenistic period. * V. VIJAYARAGHAVAN, The Classical Review *The Making of a King is an extremely welcome addition to scholarship, and it does illuminate what it sets out to illuminate. Readers will find it a superb introduction to the history of the period and will profit from it regardless of their level of prior experience. * John Holton, Newcastle University, UK, Royal Studies Journal *This would make a fine addition to any course on the rise and fall of Macedon and its re-emergence. * Danny Pucknell, The Journal of Classics Teaching *the book is vividly written, draws attention to the problem of the scarcity of sources and the importance of epigraphic material, and addresses numerous topics. * Sabine Müller, Bryn Mawr Classical Review *Waterfield succeeds in putting forth a brilliantly written account of one of the least known and most underestimated figures in Greek history alongside the third-century historical context out of which he emerged. Both the general reader without any prior knowledge and the student who already knows his way around these issues will gain from this study. * Benjamin Pedersen, Bryn Mawr Classical Review *Waterfield paints a fascinating image of Hellenistic court life and of Antigonus' intellectual interests. * Kostas Vlassopoulos, Greece & Rome Vol. 70.2 *Table of ContentsIntroduction: A Time of Transition Part One: The Wilderness Years (319-276) 1: The Disarray of Macedon 2: The Pride of Sparta 3: The Democratic Spirit of Athens 4: The Vigor of Confederacies 5: The Empire of the Ptolemies Part Two: Kingship (276-239) 6: King of Macedon 7: Antigonus and the Greeks 8: The Wheel of Fortune 9: Court and Culture 10: Glimpse of the Future Notes

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Book Synopsis From the natural geometry of the Giant''s Causeway to the sarsen slabs used to build Stonehenge, we are surrounded by evidence for the extraordinary geological forces that shaped the British Isles. Running coast to coast through Devon is ''Sticklepath'', Britain''s ''San Andreas'', a geological fault with the two sides displaced horizontally by several kilometres, all within the recent geological past. The Sticklepath Fault is just one manifestation of the rich tectonic history of the British region since the asteroid collision that ended the reign of the dinosaurs, 66 million years ago. Raised out of the Chalk Sea, the original Albion was a thickly forested island a thousand kilometres long, surrounded by chalk cliffs, punctuated with great volcanoes, and the site of two trial ''spreading ridge'' plate-boundaries. As the volcanoes shifted west, and Greenland separated from Europe, the wind-blown volcanic ash laid the strata on which London was founded. The vertical Needles, kn

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Book SynopsisHeraldry is often seen as a traditional prerogative of the nobility. But it was not just knights, princes, kings, and emperors who bore coats of arms to show off their status in the Middle Ages. The merchants and craftsmen who lived in cities, too, adopted coats of arms and used heraldic customs, including display and destruction, to underline their social importance and to communicate political messages. Medieval burgesses were part of a fascination with heraldry that spread throughout pre-modern society and looked at coats of arms as honoured signs of genealogy and history. Heraldry in Urban Society analyses the perceptions and functions of heraldry in medieval urban societies by drawing on both English- and German-language sources from the late fourteenth to the early sixteenth centuries. Despite variations that point to socio-political differences between cities (and their citizens) in the relatively centralized monarchy of medieval England and the more independent-minded urban governments found in the less closely connected Holy Roman Empire, urban heraldry emerges as a versatile and ubiquitous means of multimedia visual communication that spanned medieval Europe. Urban heraldic practices defy assumptions about clearly demarcated social practices that belonged to ''high''/''noble'' as opposed to ''low''/''urban'' culture. Townspeople''s perceptions of coats of arms paralleled those of the nobility, as they readily interpreted and carefully curated them as visual expressions of identity. These perceptions allowed townspeople of all ranks, as well as noble outsiders, to use heraldry and its display - along with its defacement and destruction - in manuscripts, spaces (such as town houses, public monuments, halls, and churches), and performances (like processions and joyous entries) to address perennial problems of urban society in the Middle Ages. The coats of arms of burgesses, guilds, and cities were communicative means of individual and collective representation, social and political legitimization, conducting and resolving conflicts, and the pursuit of elevated status in the urban hierarchy. Likewise, heraldic communication negotiated the all-important relationship between the city and wider, extramural society - from the commercial interests of citizens to their collective ties to the ruler.

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Book SynopsisFirst published over thirty years ago, War in European History is a brilliantly written survey of the changing ways that war has been waged in Europe, from the Norse invasions to the present day. Far more than a simple military history, the book serves as a succinct and enlightening overview of the development of European society as a whole over the last millennium. From the Norsemen and the world of the medieval knights, through to the industrialized mass warfare of the twentieth century, Michael Howard illuminates the way in which warfare has shaped the history of the Continent, its effect on social and political institutions, and the ways in which technological and social change have in turn shaped the way in which wars are fought. This new edition includes a fully updated further reading and a new final chapter bringing the story into the twenty-first century, including the invasion of Iraq and the so-called ''War against Terror''.Trade ReviewI cannot think of a better book to put in the hands of someone setting out on the study of military history. * Military Times *Howard's chief strength...[is] that he widens the study of warfare to take in economic, political and social factors. * Military Times *Table of ContentsPreface to the 2008 Edition ; 1. The Wars of the Knights ; 2. The Wars of the Mercenaries ; 3. The Wars of the Merchants ; 4. The Wars of the Professionals ; 5. The Wars of the Nations ; 6. The Wars of the Technologists ; Epilogue: The End of the European Era ; Notes ; Notes on Further Reading ; Index

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Book SynopsisA bestseller in 1859, Self-Help became one of Victorian Britain's most important statements on the allied virtues of hard work, thrift, and perseverance. Smiles's book is the precursor of today's motivational and self-improvement literature and encapsulated the aspirational Victorian desire for social advancement.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Shoddy is that rare book that takes you from the direct experiences you share with the author (what to do with your used clothes? the feeling of 'doing good' when you donate them to clothe someone 'less fortunate') to the larger social, economic, historical, and yes, moral universe in which those experiences live. Shell brings gives us this kind of journey by searching for shoddy. Through her we learn about the human costs of the industrial revolution, learn about British Chartism, the economic realities of the American Civil War, learn about the ideas that animated dissent--Carlyle, Disraeli, and Marx, just for a start, and so much more, all through the eyes of shoddy. It is an exemplary book in its use of the visual record to weave a narrative that implicates current practice, not just in how we do scholarship across a range of fields in media and science and technology studies, but how we think about ourselves. Shoddy is a book that will change your mind." --Sherry Turkle, author of Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital AgeTable of ContentsPrologue: Finding Shoddy Old Clothes Odyssey The Heap Act I: Devil’s Dust Emergence of an Industry Narratives of Transmutation, Myths of Invention Devil’s Dust Politics Material Philosophy and the Shredded Self Shoddy as Paradox and Marx’s “Excrements of Consumption” Act II: Textile Skin The Wear of War Textile Skin and “the Sinews of War” Shoddy and the Body Politic Photography and the “Harvest of Death” On Shrouds and Shoddy Act III: Lively Things Miasma and Contagion Consolidation of Clothes and Corpses Disinfection and Its Discontents The Intimate Materiality of the Unknowable Liveliness and Formlessness Epilogue: Shoddy Renaissance Acknowledgments Notes Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisA 400-year history of the development of alchemy in England that brings to light the evolution of the practice. In medieval and early modern Europe, the practice of alchemy promised extraordinary physical transformations. Who would not be amazed to see base metals turned into silver and gold, hard iron into soft water, and deadly poison into elixirs that could heal the human body? To defend such claims, alchemists turned to the past, scouring ancient books for evidence of a lost alchemical heritage and seeking to translate their secret language and obscure imagery into replicable, practical effects. Tracing the development of alchemy in England over four hundred years, from the beginning of the fourteenth century to the end of the seventeenth, Jennifer M. Rampling illuminates the role of alchemical reading and experimental practice in the broader context of national and scientific history. Using new manuscript sources, she shows how practitioners like George Ripley, John Dee, andTrade Review"The Experimental Fire reads like an insider's history of English alchemy, exposing its inner workings and demystifying its encrypted canon with adeptness and hard-earned authority. Jennifer M. Rampling meets the frustrating material of alchemical history with all the scholarly agility and suspicion requisite to the task. This book steers straight into the hazards of alchemical literature, with its bricolage texts full of borrowed works uncited or cited badly, recorded in manuscripts annotated by many anonymous hands. Rampling is the first to handle these hazardous materials so comprehensively and confidently. She reports on her many archival discoveries and assembles them into a coherent narrative of influence and innovation in English alchemy over four centuries. Her forerunner in this strange country was Dorothea Waley Singer, whose preliminary census of alchemical manuscripts in British libraries laid the groundwork for English alchemical history and has awaited a proper follow-up since 1931. With Experimental Fire, Rampling delivers one." * Los Angeles Review of Books *"This is a densely argued academic work which builds its case for a particular view of English alchemy example by example, with a crop of detailed footnotes sprouting from the base of every page. . . . [As] an introduction to the evolution of English alchemy, it is impeccable." * Fortean Times *"An engaging piece of scholarly work that should satisfy the expert and the layman alike. It makes a subject like alchemy, that appears highly abstruse, palatable to readers who may balk at the complexity and remoteness of alchemical language. More than anything, perhaps, it humanises the alchemist, showing him or her to be a historical personage caught up in the circumstances of the era and seeking to survive the upheavals and challenges of historical reality. As such, Rampling's book is not just an essential read for the new historiography of alchemy, but it is bound to make an important contribution to the history of science, social history, history of scholarship, and the history of the book." * Early Science and Medicine *"Jennifer M. Rampling’s first book takes on the incredible feat of identifying and tracing a specific strand of sericonian alchemical knowledge across a 400-year period. . . . In this book, Rampling expertly unpacks the function of English alchemical authority and patronage within a pan-European network of practitioners. She has pieced together a compelling narrative of national identity and alchemical change over time. . . . this will be a necessary addition to the bookshelves of any scholar of alchemy, patronage, the book, and English intellectual history." * Isis *"Rich and vast. . . . The Experimental Fire challenges us to grapple with a more expansive idea of history, one that includes the lineage, development, and comprehension of false knowledge. Just because something isn’t true doesn’t mean it’s not real, that it can’t be studied, argued over, or taught. Indeed, alchemy, Rampling argues, is nothing but the invention and reinvention of one type of knowledge. And what is literature, or history, or science, if not a variation of the same?" * Chicago Review of Books *"A new and fascinating angle on how alchemy began to transform science into a modern enterprise. . . . Beautifully and clearly written." * Forbidden Histories *“In The Experimental Fire: Inventing English Alchemy, 1300-1700, Jennifer M. Rampling presents the largely uncharted history of English alchemy from its medieval roots until the end of the seventeenth century with an astounding eye for detail.” * Annals of Science *"Rampling's extensive survey of English alchemy is a masterclass in history of science research and serves as a model for anyone who wishes to undertake such a project. Although it meets the highest standards of academic research, she writes with a light touch and an accomplished literary style making a complex and technical topic accessible to the not necessarily specialist reader. . . . Anybody with some basic knowledge of the history of alchemy, and an interest in developing that knowledge, could and should read her book. For those with a serious interest in the topic The Experimental Fire is an obligatory read and must already be considered a standard work in the genre." * Renaissance Mathematicus *"Rampling's book is a rich source for a reader interested in English alchemy in the late medieval and early modern period. Rampling deserves praise for bringing to light a large amount of as yet unpublished manuscripts, which are analysed in detail as well as placed in their historical, social, and religious contexts. The picture that emerges from this book is one of a complex network, in which practitioners, patrons, physicians, collectors, and forgers interacted and influenced each other and the art of alchemy." * Journal of Early Modern Studies *"Captivating. . . . Whether your interest is in early modern European history, the history of science, or old occult practices, this is a book well worth giving consideration as your next reading selection." * Well-read Naturalist *"As Rampling analyzes how the English alchemical practitioners filled gaps in information found in their books and resolved discrepancies between texts and experience, she identifies networks of readers and traces a subtle evolution in how works on alchemy were read. She notes parallels in these reading practices with developments in other forms of knowledge, such as Reformation-era theology. This book is well organized, offers readable and engaging prose, and has been carefully edited. The bibliography and index are comprehensive. . . . Highly recommended." * Choice *"This book has so many novel elements that it is difficult to know where to begin. Rampling presents one amazing archival discovery after another like a magician pulling rabbits from a hat. Forging vivid and compelling narratives with her materials, while remaining keenly aware of the living history behind the documents, she has been able to sketch the outlines of what has previously been entirely unknown to the history of alchemy. This is a fully achieved piece of research that is destined to become the key work in the field." -- Stephen Clucas, Birkbeck, University of London"Rampling offers a masterful survey of alchemy in England, from its status as the largest scientific genre circa 1400 through the patronage of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. Building on the legacy of George Ripley, English alchemists developed expert skills in textual interpretation and experimental practice—focused on both medicine and transmutation—in order to portray themselves as philosophers rather than artisans. Rampling writes with admirable lucidity about cryptic manuscripts, colorful figures, and complicated archival evidence." -- Ann M. Blair, Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor, Harvard University"This is an extraordinary and important piece of scholarship. Rampling carries the reader from the first origins of alchemy in Medieval England, through the Reformation, and down to the end of the seventeenth century—a remarkable temporal sweep. There has not previously been a study of the alchemical tradition that so thoroughly follows a coherently framed national context for so long a period. Rampling presents the material in a remarkably clear and concise fashion that does justice to its complexity yet still guides the reader." -- Lawrence M. Principe, author of The Transmutations of Chymistry: Wilhelm Homberg and the Académie Royale des Sciences"In The Experimental Fire: Inventing English Alchemy, 1300–1700, Jennifer Rampling traces this sericonian branch of alchemy through its highs and lows from the medieval to the early modern periods, emphasizing that alchemy was not a homogenous or static discipline but rather one that underwent a series of subtle yet important changes." * Journal of British Studies *Table of ContentsList of Figures List of Abbreviations ConventionsAcknowledgments Introduction: What Is Mercury?Part I: The Medieval Origins of English Alchemy 1. Philosophers and Kings 2. Medicine and Transmutation 3. Opinion and ExperiencePart II: The Golden Age of English Alchemy 4. Dissolution and Reformation 5. Nature and Magic 6. Time and MoneyPart III: The Legacy of Medieval Alchemy in Early Modern England 7. Recovery and Revision 8. Home and Abroad 9. Antiquity and Experiment Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Varwig’s ambitious, highly original, beautifully crafted book dares to attempt a thorough and thoroughly believable phenomenological account of how humans in the long seventeenth century were likely to have experienced and understood music with their bodies as well as with their minds. Music in the Flesh is rich with implications for how we as a culture acquired and reified certain musical values. It is nothing less than a primer in a completely new way of thinking about scores, verbal descriptions of musical performances, and performances both live and recorded.” * Suzanne Cusick, New York University *“Varwig’s brilliant book brings to life—almost literally—the wonderfully vivid writing of early modern theorists on the entanglement of music with the ‘ensouled bodies’ of its listeners and makers. The result is a gripping account of an astonishing body of historical writing that has prescient connections with twenty-first-century thinking about music and the embodied mind, and which urges its readers to experience the music of that period in richly transformed ways. This is a book that will have wide appeal from historical musicology to the psychology and neuroscience of music and will inform and influence those fields for many years to come.” * Eric F. Clarke, University of Oxford *“Music in the Flesh helps us understand how the music of the so-called Baroque is as much of the body as of the mind. With a detailed consideration of how contemporary performers and listeners might have felt during a performance, we gain insights that have totally eluded most commentators on the era. This study will become mandatory reading for any scholars interested in the different stages of the relationship between music and the emerging modern world. It will help us to sense new ways in which this music can resonate with our embodied disposition in live experience today.” * John Butt, University of Glasgow *Table of ContentsList of Figures List of Musical Examples A Note on Musical Examples and Translations Acknowledgments Preamble Part I: Embodiment 1. Words 2. Affektenlehre 3. Melisma 4. Quemadmodum desiderat cervus 5. Representation 6. Music 7. Bodies 8. Flow 9. Sound 10. Voices 11. Fili mi, Absalon Part II: Inspiration 12. Spirit 13. Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben 14. Hearing 15. Attention 16 Affections 17. Lament 18. Pulse 19. Contagion 20. Memory 21. Partien auf das Clavier Part III: Animation 22. Souls 23. Liquefaction 24. Softness 25. Liebe, sag, was fängst Du an? 26. Hearts 27. Chills 28. Pain 29. Beastliness 30. Mensa sonora Envoi Notes Primary Sources: Biographical Register and Works Cited Secondary Sources: Works Cited Recordings Index

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Book SynopsisAn exploration of the censorship of medical books from their proliferation in print through the prohibitions placed on them during the Counter-Reformation. Forbidden Knowledge explores the censorship of medical books from their proliferation in print through the prohibitions placed on them during the Counter-Reformation. How and why did books banned in Italy in the sixteenth century end up back on library shelves in the seventeenth? Historian Hannah Marcus uncovers how early modern physicians evaluated the utility of banned books and facilitated their continued circulation in conversation with Catholic authorities. Through extensive archival research, Marcus highlights how talk of scientific utility, once thought to have begun during the Scientific Revolution, in fact, began earlier, emerging from ecclesiastical censorship and the desire to continue to use banned medical books. What's more, this censorship in medicine, which preceded the Copernican debate in astronomy by sixty yeTrade Review“A remarkable book indeed, at once learned and engaging, well written and well conceived. It is also thoroughly researched. . . . Marcus provides us with a refreshing perspective on medicine, science, books, reading practices, professional self-definition, the discourse of utility, and the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge in early modern Italy. Her own book, which is well illustrated with thirty-six figures, is both illuminating and a pleasure to read.” * Journal of Modern History *"Wonderful. . . . [The book] offers and provokes meditation on the timeless nature of censorship, its practices, its intentions and, perhaps especially, its (unintended) outcomes. . . . Forbidden Knowledge also makes an important intervention in the debate about Counter-Reformation Italy, still often represented as dominated by repressive Catholic institutions. Marcus' study of the censorship of medical texts reveals a much richer picture. . . . The book offers an invaluable meditation on the processes meant to distinguish good knowledge from bad, and the fluidity of those categories." * Times Higher Education *"Many years have passed since microhistory was the latest fashion in historiography, but [this] complex, extremely erudite, nuanced, and very carefully researched book by Hannah Marcus shows how its legacy is still with us, reinterpreted in creative and innovative ways. . . . This book, written with clarity, passion and erudition at the same time as being extremely well-researched, is a model of history writing and has the potential of becoming a classic." * Metascience *"Marcus expertly explores the mechanics and meaning of the censorship of medical writings in post-Tridentine Italy in this innovative and original study. . . . Forbidden Knowledge succeeds on multiple levels that allow for the revision of many assumptions about post-Tridentine intellectual activity. By providing details into the practices of expurgation and licensing, the book delineates the priorities of the Catholic Church, while demystifying censorship. . . . Additionally, she unveils the interests and priorities of the medical community in a manner that exceeds what is often found in traditional intellectual histories. . . . Most importantly, Marcus deftly explains the various contradictions that shaped the interactions between Catholic authorities and the medical and scientific communities of early modern Italy, showing how these dynamics defined the role of outside expertise in creating 'Catholic Knowledge' for centuries to come." * Annals of Science *"Throughout, Marcus expresses her insights in a very readable prose enriched by an excellent eye for telling anecdotes. . . . Marcus has provided an impressively researched book that makes several important contributions to understanding the application of Reformation-era Catholic censorship to the intellectual world of Italian learned medicine. There is much to draw on, and build on, in this book." * Social History of Medicine *"[A] meticulously researched study. . . . This monograph presents a series of powerful and convincing arguments about the shaping of both Catholic culture and scientific knowledge in the early modern period, but it is equally rich in material for scholars from different disciplinary and methodological viewpoints. Marcus deftly deploys the techniques and concerns of scholars who study the history of book production—collecting, material culture, literacy, and reading. In short, her work presents a compelling argument married to an innovative series of methodologies." * Journal of Interdisciplinary History *"This is an important study that all scholars and advanced students of early modern Europe will want to read, especially those interested in early modern medicine, religion, and the history of the book. . . . Highly recommended." * Choice *"Marcus provides a fresh perspective on the complex, often conflictual, relationship between religion and science in the Counter-Reformation age, illustrating the tortuous reception of prohibited medical texts in Catholic Italy." * Nuncius *"Marcus shows how censors did their job in Counter-Reformation Italy, using medicine as a test case. Censors’ tools ranged from humanist techniques for reading, which enabled them to find and highlight problematic passages, to pens and scissors, with which they defaced the names of religious enemies and much more. But their means and powers were always limited. Drawing on unexplored documents, Marcus also recreates the system of permissions that enabled medical men to stay abreast of the new books printed in Protestant Europe. As lively as it is learned, this book reveals that Italian libraries witnessed as many scenes of struggle as of repression." -- Anthony Grafton, Princeton University“Forbidden Knowledge is a fascinating story of what can go wrong in censorship regimes when the censored field is seen as essential to human health and welfare, and when the works of the authors most in need of censoring are widely recognized as indispensable to the field. In this impeccably researched book, Marcus brings her story alive by focusing on the people involved in censorship and expurgation: frustrated administrators, busy and uncooperative professors, expert readers eager to pad their libraries at the Church’s expense, and an expurgator so pious he insisted on censoring his own works. An important contribution to the histories of early modern medicine, censorship, and the book." -- Katharine Park, author of Secrets of Women: Gender, Generation, and the Origins of Human Dissection"Marcus’s story about censorship ranges much more widely than most Anglophone accounts of the topic. Her point is that the system as we see it developing in sixteenth-century Italy was not only a device for suppressing texts, but a collection of practices for editing them, approving them, and directing their circulation. The book is provocative, overdue, and exciting. It will become an obligatory point of reference in the field, and I can imagine it acting as the launching pad for a generation of future studies." -- Adrian Johns, author of Piracy: The Intellectual Property Wars from Gutenberg to GatesTable of ContentsIntroduction: The Paradox of Censorship 1. The Medical Republic of Letters and the Roman Indexes of Prohibited Books 2. Locating Expertise, Soliciting Expurgations 3. The Censor at Work 4. Censoring Medicine in Rome’s Index Expurgatorius of 1607 5. Prohibited Medical Books and Licensed Readers 6. Creating Censored Objects 7. Prohibited Books in Universal Libraries Epilogue Acknowledgments Appendix Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisWhether as an epic battleground or a cradle of civilizations, Europe has left an enduring imprint on the history of the world for over two millennia. From megalithic civilizations through ancient times, the Renaissance, the Industrial Revolution, the rise of nationalism, two world wars and the years that followed, this book looks beyond a series of distinct national histories to offer the history of Europe as an often shared experience across one continent. This book delves into events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, traces the continents evolution from the collapse of Communism through the Iraq War, global financial crisis, Brexit and Russia''s invasion of Ukraine. And then looking forward, it explores what would be necessary for the continent to remain a global power-player for years to come.

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Book Synopsis''We shall therefore confine our walk to Central London where people meet on business during the day, and to West London where they meet for pleasure at night. If you will walk about the first City in the British Empire arm in arm with Merriman-Labor, you are sure to see Britons in merriment and at labour, by night and by day, in West and Central London.''In Britons Through Negro Spectacles Merriman-Labor takes us on a joyous, intoxicating tour of London at the turn of the 20th century.Slyly subverting the colonial gaze usually placed on Africa, he introduces us to the citizens, culture and customs of Britain with a mischievous glint in his eye.This incredible work of social commentary feels a century ahead of its time, and provides unique insights into the intersection between empire, race and community at this important moment in history.Selected by Booker Prize-winning author Bernardine Evaristo, this series rediscoveTrade ReviewMerriman-Labor was clearly way ahead of his time with this razor-sharp satire, with many of his observations both painfully accurate and not entirely without humour * Buzz Magazine *A.B.C. Merriman-Labor [is] a pioneer of West African literature who speaks truth to power using irony and wit * The Sierra Leone Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisAn unmissable book that explores the brutal, heroic and extraordinary final days of the First World WarOn the eleventh hour of the eleventh day in November 1918, the guns of the Western Front fell silent.The Armistice, which brought the Great War to an end, marked a seminal moment in modern European and World history. Yet the story of how the war ended remains little-known. In this compelling and ground-breaking new study, Nick Lloyd examines the last days of the war and asks the question: how did it end? Beginning at the heralded turning-point on the Marne in July 1918, Hundred Days traces the epic story of the next four months, which included some of the bloodiest battles of the war.Using unpublished archive material from five countries, this new account reveals how the Allies - British, French, American and Commonwealth - managed to beat the German Army, by now crippled by indiscipline and ravaged by influenza, and force her leaders toTrade ReviewThis is a powerful and moving book by a rising military historian. Lloyd's depiction of the great battles of July-November provides compelling evidence of the scale of the Allies' victories and the bitter reality of German defeat -- Gary Sheffield (Professor of War Studies)Lloyd enters the upper tier of Great War historians with this admirable account of the war's final campaign * Publishers Weekly *Writing about the last 100 days of the war on the Western Front, Lloyd asks whether the Allies had learnt anything from the previous years of conflict and whether the Germans were really defeated in 1918 -- Joanna Bourke * The Telegraph *Lloyd's brisk and thoroughly engrossing book leaves no doubt that the Germans were beaten fair and square where it really mattered - on the battlefield -- Dominic Sandbrook * The Evening Standard *There is a grim fascination to the endgame, as the hopes still nursed by the Germans were finally extinguished and the Allies won a victory that in seemed inevitable in retrospect * Metro *Gives the reader an insight into the raw emotions of the period and lends immediacy to the more sober narrative * The Oxford Times *Compelling, very readable * Books Monthly *As Nick Lloyd's account of the great Allied counter-offensives of summer 1918 convincingly shows, the Allies had learned (if painfully slowly) how to win battles . . . the German army was absolutely, totally defeated in the field -- John Lewis-Stempel * The Express *Hundred Days is a bracing re-dramatization of the horrors that were most fresh in the minds of all concerned when those days were over -- Steve Donoghue * Open Letters Monthly *Very well-researched and well-written. Reminds us just how important this crushing endgame was -- Andrew RobertsConveys the epic sweep of events, as the allied troops relentlessly pushed the German divisions back, with staggering losses . . . Lloyd also gives the worm's eye-view of what it was like for the men on the ground. He is expert at bringing to life, in a few lines, the characters of the top brass -- Brandon Robshaw * The Independent *

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Book SynopsisIn Home Francis Pryor, author of The Making of the British Landscape, archaeologist and broadcaster, takes us on his lifetime''s quest: to discover the origins of family life in prehistoric BritainFrancis Pryor''s search for the origins of our island story has been the quest of a lifetime. In Home, the Time Team expert explores the first nine thousand years of life in Britain, from the retreat of the glaciers to the Romans'' departure. Tracing the settlement of domestic communities, he shows how archaeology enables us to reconstruct the evolution of habits, traditions and customs. But this, too, is Francis Pryor''s own story: of his passion for unearthing our past, from Yorkshire to the west country, Lincolnshire to Wales, digging in freezing winters, arid summers, mud and hurricanes, through frustrated journeys and euphoric discoveries. Evocative and intimate, Home shows how, in going about their daily existence, our prehistoric ancestors

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Book Synopsis* * * Special 75th Anniversary Edition * * * Hugh Sebag-Montefiore''s Dunkirk: Fight to the Last Man tells the story of the rescue in May 1940 of British soldiers fleeing capture and defeat by the Nazis at Dunkirk.Dunkirk was not just about what happened at sea and on the beaches. The evacuation would never have succeeded had it not been for the tenacity of the British soldiers who stayed behind to ensure they got away. Men like Sergeant Major Gus Jennings who died smothering a German stick bomb in the church at Esquelbecq in an effort to save his comrades, and Captain Marcus Ervine-Andrews VC who single-handedly held back a German attack on the Dunkirk perimeter thereby allowing the British line to form up behind him. Told to stand and fight to the last man, these brave few battalions fought in whatever manner they could to buy precious time for the evacuation. Outnumbered and outgunned, they launched spectacular and heroic attacks time and again, despite ferocious fighting and the knowledge that for many only capture or death would end their struggle.''A searing story . . . both meticulous military history and a deeply moving testimony to the extraordinary personal bravery of individual soldiers'' Tim Gardam, The Times ''Sebag-Montefiore tells [the story] with gusto, a remarkable attention to detail and an inexhaustible appetite for tracking down the evidence'' Richard Ovary, Telegraph Hugh Sebag-Montefiore was a barrister before becoming a journalist and then an author. He wrote the best-selling Enigma: The Battle for the Code. One of his ancestors was evacuated from Dunkirk.Trade ReviewA searing story . . . both meticulous military history and a deeply moving testimony to the extraordinary personal bravery of individual soldiers -- Tim Gardam * The Times *Sebag-Montefiore tells [the story] with gusto, a remarkable attention to detail and an inexhaustible appetite for tracking down the evidence -- Richard Overy * Telegraph *Several fine books have been written about "the miracle of Dunkirk", but none better than this -- Andrew Roberts * Mail on Sunday *

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Book SynopsisPresents historiographic research on Nazi Germany. This book brings together the important aspects of the author's research on the Holocaust. Featuring three sections: Hitler and the 'Final Solution', popular opinion and the Jews in Nazi Germany, and the 'Final Solution' in historiography, it provides a section on the uniqueness of Nazism.Trade Review"'this short book goes to the heart of the great debates over Nazism, then examines the progress of the debates themselves... an important contribution to the historiography of the Second World War. Plus it's a page-turner.' Andrew Roberts, The Mail on Sunday 'an excellent chance to acquire, in a single volume, Kershaw's writings on the Holocaust... The classic essays in the first two sections of the book will remain required reading for students of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust for years to come.' Dan Stone, BBC History Magazine 'To a field that is increasingly fragmented, faddish and cursed by jargon, Kershaw brings a grounded, unified perspective that is conveyed with precision and clarity. His unflashy style, personal reticence and sheer decency are, sadly, too often absent among 'celebrity historians'.' David Cesarini, Literary Review"

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